Imagine the scenario. November 2, the World Cup final. Last scrum of
the game. A world-record TV audience watches on. New Zealand lead
Ireland by six points, Ireland are five metres from the Kiwi line. Tadhg
Furlong and friends win a penalty.

Irishmen
and dyed-in-the-wool World Cup fans do not doubt the decision but there
are all these new converts to the game. One side has won the ultimate
game in their code without having to dot the ball down. It is like
signalling for a goal in football because an infringement occurred in
the penalty area.

We all
know that the degree of probability has to be high to award a penalty
try, but imagine it: a World Cup final is won, yet the game is deprived
of a winning moment. The would-be converts scratch their heads and
return to their preferred sports, where goals must be scored. To union
acolytes the scrum penalty try may be an arcane thing of beauty; to
those new to the sport, it is ridiculous. In a World Cup year, rugby is
on alert.

It
is the four-yearly showpiece that enables World Rugby to wax lyrical
about the vast audiences and its many new players, inspired by the
global greats. The Ancient Tribe, those born before the 1980s — and
perhaps French and Georgian fans — enjoy the timeless complexity of an
aspect of the game at which most of us, referees included, guess while
the millennials (and Australians) demand an easier form of
entertainment.

Union
is still finding itself as a professional sport. The governing body
puts itself in the younger audience’s camp with its assertion of player
safety at the scrum without quite letting its importance go. League uses
scrums to restart a game, union (in theory) as a weapon in itself or to
create space for the backs.

The theory is fantastic.
Theoretically, place me with the Ancients. But practice is different. A
scrum should take a maximum of 30 seconds to engage. But after “crouch,
bind, set”, the reality is . . . you have lost interest. If I have
recorded the rugby on a Sunday afternoon, I may flick to the football.
The ball can swing end to end before I return to the rugby, only to see
the front row standing and then slipping or collapsing, depending on the
surface.

The game has a problem. Sixteen blokes are pushing,
pulling, whipping and wheeling, dropping or lifting and there are few
with a clue as to who is guilty. When I made the leap from fly half to
broadcaster, I worked hard on scrums. All I had previously cared about
was receiving possession; as to the “how”, I left that up to mates such
as Gareth Chilcott. The arts are dark in that front row but arts there
are, subtle too for such big men. So subtle that it was pointless for a
former No 10 to pretend. Retired forwards commentate with the same lack
of conviction today as I did then.

Referees? They will come up
with an explanation but little is obvious in their decision. Throughout
history, props being forced into the air by opponents was evidence of
weakness. Now it is proof of nefarious goings-on by the opposition.
These decisions can lead to territory or points with no one sure of its
veracity.

You don’t get dubious penalties in rugby league scrums
because they are scrums only in name. You don’t get forwards and backs,
you get 13 rugby players. The millennial camp thinks this is a good
idea; the Ancients hark back to a game for all sizes. Union was, for a
long time, a game primarily for the pleasure of players. That changed
when professionalism brought money and marketing into the glare of the
spotlights.

Back to that hypothetical penalty try. Imagine not
being a rugby follower and seeing the tournament won with one subjective
blast of the whistle. It is bad enough that TMO decisions strip
supporters of the immediate ecstasy of celebration but to think that we
have a sport that can be won without scoring a winning try . . . it
could be set back a decade in its development if that scenario were to
unfold.

The Ancients are not obsessed with audiences, the
millennials are confused by the cult of the scrum. One way or another,
rugby’s ancient epicentre represents the battle for union’s soul in
2019.

God heaven forbid we follow soccer as a beacon of light for clear desisions where players fall over blades of grass ifthe wind is in the wrong direction or someone runs past. It would be interesting to know how many penalty tries have been awarded at the World Cup or in the top flight of leagues in respective nations to understand if the comments have any meaningful merit

The most annoying scrum penalty in my opinion is when the referee blows his whistle when a team is shunted back at a rate and the ball is available to be played !. The team should be made to use the ball as opposed to getting a penalty in my opinion.

Being on the receiving end of an opposition with a dominant scrum is tough enough without having penalties and ultimately yellow cards being given out .

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